


The Action Heroine's Handbook

by Rubynye



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-11
Updated: 2010-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 04:12:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Happy birthday," Claire sings, waving the package.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Action Heroine's Handbook

Title: The Action Heroine's Handbook  
Fandom: _Heroes_  
Rating: PG at most.  
Warnings: none, really. Post-series.   
Summary: "Happy birthday," Claire sings, waving the package.  
A/N: The book is real, and very amusing.  
Disclaimer: These characters and their settings do not belong to me.

Monica is putting on her sports bra when Claire opens the door. "Hey," she says in greeting, checking the reflection in the window just in case. Yup, Claire. "How's it going?"

Claire drops her bookbag on her desk and shrugs out of her jacket. "Not bad, not bad. I found something out today."

"What?" Monica bends down to pull on her boots, glancing upside-down at Claire. She's pulling something out of her bookbag with that little sideways smile of hers.

Whatever it is it's flat and square and wrapped in bright pink paper. Monica stands up, groaning, one hand over her face. "You didn't---"

"Happy birthday," Claire sings, waving the package, stepping forward with each line of the song. She trills "Mon-i-caaaaaaaaah" until her victim rolls her eyes, and speeds through the last "Happy birthday to you!" as she shoves the package into Monica's hands.

"Aw, God," Monica protests weakly. Everyone on the hall thinks of her as 'the orphan from New Orleans', everyone keeps trying to take care of her, except Claire, and is this the end of that? "How'd you know?"

"I know this little boy," Claire sing-songs, grin bright and wide. "He can do the best things with computers..."

"Oh, _hell_! How do you know Micah? Or---" Claire's smile is gone. "Back in the day, yeah? I can guess." Claire's told Monica a little about her life before college; it was wilder than Monica's, and that's saying something.

Claire nods, and her dimple comes back. "Back in the day. Anyway, when I realized his _favorite_ cousin was my roommate, I had some questions to ask."

"Hopefully not my size." Monica squeezes the package; it's hard but flexible. A book, probably.

"He _is_ a little boy." Claire waves her hand. "Open it already?"

Monica rolls her eyes and pulls off the paper as Claire laughs. It's not a textbook or a notebook. It's a paperback, with a comic-book drawing of a woman and a helicopter on the cover under the title _The Action Heroine's Handbook_. "Are you for _real_?"

"I figured we might as well read it, see what the instructions are." Claire sits up on her desk. "Are we doing it right?"

"I think we're doing just fine," Monica says. They got five muggers last week alone, and stopped what really looked like a rape about to happen, and Campus Police's vigilante alerts haven't had any new information for three weeks. Still, she flips through the book's labeled line drawings and lists of instructions, until a header catches her eye. "How to Outwit a Sasquatch," Monica reads out loud.

"Oh, my God," Claire says, and hops down. "I have to see this."

"There's even a list of Bigfoot Facts!" Monica points them out as Claire reads over her shoulder. "For all your Bigfoot needs."

"Good, since I think this guy Jimmy in Econ is a cousin of his." Claire reaches around to flip pages until she snorts as she stops. "How to Maintain a Secret Identity," she recites, and goes quiet for a few moments, reading silently with a hard smirk on her face. "Cheesey, but not too far off," she judges as she steps back. "Anyway."

"It's funny, at least." Monica turns to face her. "We can read the whole thing when we get back. "

"If we're not falling over." Claire's smile is still hard, but in a good way. "If we don't find any evildoers to thwart."

"You're cheesier than this book." Snickering, Monica tosses it on her bed and grabs a tee; Claire grins and pulls off her jacket, changing while Monica ties on her mask and puts on the black hoodie she wears for evening patrol. When she's done tugging her mask into place so the eyeholes don't shift over her eyes during action, Monica looks up at Claire, who's folding her hair into a hairnet. It looks incredibly ancient, but it works to keep all that long blonde hair from escaping.

Claire picks up her mask, and Monica tries to figure out how to thank her. For the frivolous birthday gift, for not treating her like a charity case, for being another girl with a secret ability, for understanding. Claire looks up, and even with her face covered Monica can see her forehead furrowing with curiosity.

So she just says, "thank you, you know. For my gift."

She can see Claire's smile through the mask, too. "Hey, happy birthday," Claire holds out her hand. Monica grabs it, and they pull each other into a hug. "Now let's get out there and fight crime, partner," Claire says, close and cheerful in her ear.

"You got it, partner," Monica only giggles a little before she makes herself settle down and let go. Then she opens the window and climbs out into the night, Claire right behind her.

 

 

_\- Heroes, Monica/Claire: going on patrol - no spandex._ This ended up as more of an ampersand than a slash, but I couldn't help thinking of them as college roommates, and it all just went from there.


End file.
